Presentations in Action - Jerry Weissman [3]
In 1988, I brought the accumulated techniques into the business world, where, after refining and applying them as a coach in the private Power Presentations programs, I made them available to the public in three books: Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, The Power Presenter: Technique Style and Strategy, and In the Line of Fire: How to Handle Tough Questions. Taken together, the three books span all the essential elements of any presentation.
An important adjunct to the techniques was to illustrate them with examples of other presentations as lessons of what to do and what not to do. Most of those examples came from my work with prior clients and with public figures. As the years progressed, I accumulated a substantial repertory of case studies from the business world and video clips from the political world. During that same time, I found additional examples in such diverse fields as current events, politics, science, art, music, literature, cinema, media, sports, and even the military. These variations from pure business cases proved to be even more valuable as coaching tools and lessons because they demonstrated the universal aspects of all human communication; in doing so they added significant dimension to the basic techniques.
This book consists of 80 new case studies from the front of the room. They are grouped into five sections mapped to the three original books, where you can find the basic techniques in full:
Section I—Content: The Art of Telling Your Story
Section II—Graphics: The Correct Way to Design PowerPoint Slides
Section III—Delivery Skills: Actions Speak Louder than Words
Section IV—Q&A: How to Handle Tough Questions
Section V—Integration: Putting It All Together
The first two sections relate to Presenting to Win, the third section, The Power Presenter, the fourth, In the Line of Fire, and the fifth incorporates all three books. I am confident that these diverse case studies will give you added depth and dimension for your presentation skills, as well as for all your communication skills. But for the techniques to work most effectively, you must also follow the advice of Confucius—and Nike—and just do it.
Section I. Content: The Art of Telling Your Story
1. A Lesson from Professor Marvel, a.k.a. The Wizard of Oz: How to Customize Your Presentation
In the opening scenes of The Wizard of OzF1.1, Dorothy runs away from her Kansas home and promptly encounters Professor Marvel, a seedy, itinerant con artist whose tacky traveling wagon advertises him as “Acclaimed by The Crown Heads of Europe.” He offers his services to “Read Your Past, Present, and Future in His Crystal Ball.”
Professor Marvel, played marvelously by Frank Morgan, takes one look at the naive girl, glances down at her suitcase, and says, “You’re running away!”
Having missed his glance, Dorothy asks wondrously, “How did you guess?”
The Professor replies, “Now, why are you running away? No, no, don’t tell me!” He looks off pensively, as if conjuring some magical power. Then, as if having divined a vision, he says conclusively, “They don’t understand you at home!”
The wide-eyed girl smiles and says, “Why, it’s just like you could read what was inside me!”
The Professor then offers Dorothy a crystal ball reading and asks her to close her eyes and concentrate. As she does, the Professor quickly rummages around in her basket. He then proceeds to describe what he pretends to see in the crystal ball, referencing the items in the basket.
Clearly, Professor Marvel is a charlatan, but we can learn a positive lesson from his trickery. He was able to connect with Dorothy and establish her trust by referencing relevant facts about her. The lesson here is that presenters can connect with their audiences by making references to relevant facts about individuals in the audience or about the audience as an affinity group.